226 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1129 



peds, the products of land and water, but as 

 well much of the public domain itself, both 

 land and water, the agricultural, timber and 

 mineral lands, the sea shores and the lands 

 under water inside the three-mile limit, etc., 

 directly or by indirection, with the result that 

 we have changed the forms of our investment, 

 destroyed nature's perennial dividend pro- 

 ducer, only to find after trial on other lines 

 that we must restore nature's plant and meth- 

 ods, be content to assist nature, and to be sat- 

 isfied with smaller, though more regular in- 

 crement. The tendency is to replace, fre- 

 quently at public expense, what the lethargy 

 of the people has permitted to be destructively 

 turned into private property. We burn our 

 forests, then laboriously replant them. "We de- 

 stroy the native birds, and import foreign spe- 

 cies to replace them, and even then are com- 

 pelled to resort to expensive spraying opera- 

 tions to check insect depredations which under 

 natural conditions would have been controlled 

 in considerable measure by birds. We pollute 

 our sources of drinking water, and then devise 

 costly and sometimes ineffective methods of 

 purification. "We poison our rivers, and im- 

 port food fish from wiser nations, or spend our 

 money for outdoor recreation in more far- 

 sighted communities. 



Many of the major abuses have happily now 

 come within the public view and into line for 

 ultimate correction. There remain, however, 

 many minor abuses, similar in that they have 

 arisen from the same causes as have the major 

 ones, viz., the personal acquisitive habits of 

 man. These abuses menace the usefulness, 

 even the existence, of many important public 

 assets because in addition they include an 

 underlying biological fallacy which escaped 

 the notice of the legislators. A biological 

 joker in a legislative bill is sometimes more 

 difficult to deal with than the proverbial " col- 

 ored gentleman in the pile of ligneous fuel" 

 and is a more certain source of trouble. The 

 most prominent weakness in original legisla- 

 tion dealing with wild life, whether fish, birds 

 or quadrupeds, is the too great emphasis upon 

 " don't." Restrictive legislation, piled Pelion 

 on Ossa, at enormous waste of energy and 

 time, frequently fails to meet expectations, for 



the reason that it usually ignores the question 

 of increased production. It restricts the de- 

 mand without increasing the supply. In gen- 

 eral, for example, legislation restricting the 

 time (close seasons) and manner of taking, 

 unless closely connected with the breeding 

 habits of such species as can not be readily 

 propagated artificially and thereby made inde- 

 pendent of the natural conditions necessary 

 for existence, fails to be effective, in that in 

 many cases they do not increase the supply in 

 proportion to the restriction upon demand. 

 The true method is to increase the annual pro- 

 duction by bringing about conditions which 

 augment the number of eggs or young pro- 

 duced and brought to maturity, by minimizing 

 the enemies which prey upon young and 

 adults, by improving the feeding conditions, 

 inducing more rapid growth or improved 

 qualities. Both the terrestrial and aquatic 

 conditions are closely similar and require 

 practically identical treatment. We more 

 quickly, however, detect changing conditions 

 on land and apply the proper remedy without 

 loss of time. 



The Pilgrim Fathers had scarcely become 

 fairly settled at Plymouth, where fish were so 

 abundant that it was " enacted by the Court, 

 that six score and 12 fishes shall be accounted 

 to the 100 of all sorts of fishes," before estab- 

 lishing by Article 8 of the laws of 1623, that 

 principle of public rights which has opened at 

 once the wealth of Croesus and given oppor- 

 tunities to the modern Aeolus of legislative 

 bodies, that " fowling, fishing and hunting be 

 free to all inhabitants of this government, pro- 

 vided, that all the orders from time to time 

 made by the General Court for the due regula- 

 tion of fishing and fowling be observed in 

 place or places wherein special interest and 

 property is justly claimed by the Court or any 

 particular person." 



This marks the beginning in this country of 

 the principle of primitive communism which 

 had a basis in genuine altruism, and which be- 

 yond doubt then met existing conditions, as 

 seen by those who could not forecast the fu- 

 ture and whose mental point of view and hori- 

 zon was obstructed by unfortunate experi- 

 ences across the sea. 



